Paribas Bonds
Let Investors
Court Disaster

PARIS -- Despite their forbidding name, catastrophe bonds are catching on with both investors, on one side, and reinsurance companies on the other.

The bonds, at the cutting edge of BNP Paribas Asset Management's alternative-investment range, allow investors to invest based on the probability -- or improbability -- of catastrophic tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural perils.